Illustration by Claire Anderson/ NBN

2. Jamba Juice: n.
1) Chain of restaurants offering healthy smoothie options, now located on campus in Norris Student Center
2) Recently-closed Freshëns’s hotter, looser half cousin from California

3. Enigma Café: n.
1) The newest addition to Evanston’s wide array of cafés, located in the space once occupied by Café Ambrosia
2) A sour and constant reminder of the late-night, casual, vanilla-honey-latte-making café that once was

4. The Great Room: n.
1) The newest addition to the nuCuisine family
2) Late-night café offering pub food and a social setting to those too lazy/tired/prematurely inebriated to make it all the way south to Burger King

Illustration by Claire Anderson/ NBN

5. Morton Owen Schapiro (also “Mort” or “Morty”): n.
1) Former president of Williams College, currently serving as Northwestern University’s 16th president
2) Eloquent, charismatic teddy bear who looks damn good in purple

Director Sam Mendes on the set of Away We Go.

Sam Mendes is perhaps best known for his work in Oscar-worthy dramas that dissect the American family (read: American Beauty, Revolutionary Road), exposing distress between husband and wife, beauty in plastic bags and a general sense of disillusionment in everyday life. Though it does take on the problems of various relationships, Away We Go is nothing like that.

The film, starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, is, on its face, a tale of two simple people encountering abnormality and eccentricity as they try to find a place for themselves and their unborn child. The final product, though, yields the subtle humor reminiscent of films like Juno, finding comedy in ridiculous characters as the two move across the country. Krasinski’s full-bearded Burt possesses a sincerity and naivete that makes his character endearing, while Rudolph’s Verona takes some adjusting to, though her apathetic vibe does subside by the end. Blessed with an array of comedic co-stars including Maggie Gyllenhaal as the Zen influenced, sex loving earth child and Allison Janney and Jim Gaffigan as the wildly inappropriate parents of two, the quirky film succeeds in maintaining a balance of farce and tender moments of honesty. Mendes’s lighthearted peek into the trials of domesticity has a few staggering steps, but the journey, the characters and the oddity make the film worth seeing.

North by Northwestern sat down with Mendes to discuss the film, working with television actors and the toddler version of Chris Farley.

What was the relationship like with screenwriters Dave Eggers and Vita, what was the relationship like with the writers?

It was a lot of fun. They’re proper writers and they just sit down and they write novels and magazines and screenplays and words pour forth. I think any time you’re working with the real deal it’s a pleasure as long as you treat them with respect and not like hacks or people who are just there to transcribe your ideas. I read the screenplay; it was kind of 4/5 done and a fifth of it they wanted to change and they did, we had no disagreements. I shot the script they wrote, you know, the movie is from their heads.

Had you read any of his work prior to seeing the screenplay?

Oh yeah, well the obvious Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I’d also read What is the What and subscribed to The Believer and McSweeney. I was part of the distant Eggers fan club, I wasn’t an active fan in the sense that I had never met him and now I’m more of the in-the-circle fan club.

It seems like there’s a really good balance between what’s spoken and the cinematography, whereas a lot of directors seem to gravitate. How do you maintain that balance?

I think that is something that I really work on because in this movie there’s a lot of very talky scenes. There are two movies going on simultaneously, well there are two stories going on simultaneously. The first story is a story that they are aware of and the other story is a story that they’re not aware of I think, a secret story in a way. But the other movie is about the landscape and the bigger journey which is to try and make sense of how we live and they’re not aware that they’re on that kind of mythic quest but we need to feel like their story has some kind of bigger meaning than just meeting a few people across America. It has a scale, so for that you need to tell that story in pictures and in music so that’s told with cinematography and with the landscapes and colors and atmospheres and, of course, with the music, which is Alexi Murdoch songs which are all really wonderful.

How did you get in touch with Alexi Murdoch about providing so much of the music that is included in the film?

Good old iTunes. I can’t say it was the Genius on iTunes that is like “You like Nick Drake, we suggest Alexi Murdoch,” but it was pretty close to that. The weird thing about songs in movies is that you can shoot the movie and be listening to songs while you’re doing it, convinced that you’re going to use the songs in the movie. And then you get in the cutting room and you put the songs in and it really doesn’t work. That actually always happens to me, I’ve never end up using the songs I was listening to when I was making the film –- except on this one occasion. I was listening to these songs, I put one in the movie and it worked and I just thought “Okay, that’s it then.” Gradually I put more and more of his songs.

It seems that when you’re working with music with lyrics, you have a whole other narrative going on. If he’s composing songs exclusively for the film did you talk to Alexi Murdoch about what the content should be?

No, no. I think with songs it’s like you want them to sort of brush against the movie and leave a color. Sometimes words float by you that seem to have a direct relevance to the scene and sometimes they don’t, but I was aware of where the lyrics were. I edited the music so that the lyrics fell in the right place, so that they felt like they meant something. There’s a sense of longing in the music and a sense of melancholy that I think is there in all the songs, which really articulates a whole side of the film that would otherwise might get lost. I don’t want to give them specifics, that’s just going to constrict them. Same with actors, if you get too technical with them they lose spontaneity and they lose life.

In terms of casting, you picked two actors known for their television work. How do you get them to dissociate from these characters that come into our homes every week and get them to play these very different characters?

Obviously I know both of them well from their work on TV but I never thought of John [Krasinski] as Jim from The Office because I worked with him before he did Jim from The Office and he’s nothing like Jim from The Office. He’s much more Tigger-like and energized, kind of like a wired bean pole – full of ideas and inspiration and improvisation and all of those things. And Maya [Rudolph], it turns out, is not at all like her character. She’s full of these high-energy comic creations on Saturday Night Live, but she is a person who is very mellow, very centered, very calm, very thoughtful and an incredibly earthy and sweet person. So that’s what I go on. I was very interested in them both playing against perceived notions of who they were, but that’s not why I cast them. I cast them because they were Burt and Verona. The luck I had is that they loved each other, got on like a house on fire and made each other laugh and sort of bounced ideas off each other the whole time so to get that energy that was going on behind the camera and put it in front of the camera wasn’t so difficult.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones with the kids.

Yes! [laughs] What about the little chubby kid? He’s a genius, he’s our mini Chris Farley. We all did impersonations [of the scene] afterward.

After having worked with so many young kids in this film, how do you feel about the old saying “Never work with children or animals”?

Actually I would be the first to have said that, but they didn’t give me any… well, the baby in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first scene would not stop crying. All we would do was wait for her to stop crying, wait for the baby to take a deep breath and try to get a line in. But other than that they were great.

What was it like on set with so many different comedic voices?

Maya Rudolph has been around every great comedian of the last twenty years at Saturday Night Live, John Krasinski works with Steve Carrell on a daily basis – none of them could keep a straight face with Catherine O’Hara so she’s different from everybody else. The joy of a road movie is it’s episodic, with each new episode there’s a new set of characters and each new set of characters brings an explosion of comic energy or energy. Because filmmaking is such a marathon, it keeps you going.

I read that this is your first time directing an original screenplay since American Beauty. What are the differences between doing an original screenplay as opposed to an adapted?

The big pleasure is that there are no expectations, in that nobody knows the story, and I think that’s one of the big pleasures of this movie is that you go in and even if you’ve seen the trailer I don’t think you can tell from the trailer what this movie is about really, not really about. You can tell it’s funny and it’s got some jokes and stuff like that, but you can’t think… I think when you’ve gotten to the end of this movie, it’s crept up on you and reveals itself to be about more things than you initially think it’s going to be about. So that’s a big pleasure, that people don’t know anything.

Rudo y Cursi, starring Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, may not have the steamy threesome and sex featured in their earlier film Y tu mamá también, but the film that reunites Luna and Bernal after eight years does boast something equally remarkable: a countrified Mexican version of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.” If that doesn’t get attendees in theater seats, frankly, I don’t know what will.

The Mexican comedy from writer and director Carlos Cuarón follows half brothers and full rivals Tato (Bernal) and Beto (Luna) Verdusco as they ascend from the plantation to near-super soccer stardom. The film opens with a brief narrated history of the beautiful game, the opening minutes overflowing with images of soccer balls, soccer cleats, goals and nets, before moving on to Tato and Beto’s shared story. The two are instantly pitted against one another as a recruiter, Batuta (Guillermo Francella), forces the two to compete for one position on a Mexican soccer team.

After winning the chance to compete professionally, Tato enters the cutthroat world of Mexican soccer, armed with dreams of eventually making the transition (like so many stars today do) from soccer stardom to musical fame. When Beto leaves his wife and family at the plantation to join his brother and enters the profession soon after, the fixed tactics of playboy Batuta become apparent: the calculated lines, subpar initial living conditions, the constant negotiations of his cut. As with most rags to riches stories, Beto and Tato rise to prominence, happiness and money too quickly and find themselves succumbing to the vices: for Beto, gambling on anything from cock fighting to poker; for Tato, that damn music career.

The film boasts an all-star list of Mexican stars both in front of and behind the silver screen: in addition to Bernal, Luna and Cuarón, Y tu mamá también director Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores perros) also worked on the project. Bernal and Luna are clearly at home in their settings, not only in collaborating with Mexican filmmakers, but in their comfort and understanding of one another. Portraying brothers onscreen after years of friendship off-screen (in addition to Y tu mamá también, they also formed Canana Films together) is not a stretch by any means, making watching the two actors work together once again that much more enjoyable.

Cuarón utilizes a series of narration to move the film along, having Batuta impart gems of wisdom such as “Wars are taken for games, and games are taken for wars” to compliment the action and passage of time. The comments are tolerated for the first half of the film, but by the time Batuta’s manipulative charm has taken its toll on our leads, the narration becomes superfluous, almost annoying as it nears an end. That said, Batuta’s character is actually one of the most likable, the presentation and demeanor of his character makes his exploitation understandable, almost charming.

Rudo y Cursi is technically categorized as a comedy, but the word is used loosely. Though there are certainly several humorous moments throughout the film (referring to that Cheap Trick cover here), watching the brothers rise to and fall from fame is frustrating and disheartening. Watching Beto and Tato throw away their home, their women and their careers is necessary but painful, leaving you hoping for at least a silver lining by the end of the film.

Bernal and Luna’s ability to transition to new roles so seamlessly after eight years and with a powerhouse of Mexican talent behind them makes Rudo y Cursi a film worth seeing. Just don’t expect more sex than soccer.

Ludacris leaves little unclear in “What’s Your Fantasy” from his 2000 album Back for the First Time, one of his most recognizable songs. Specifying favorite places (a public bathroom and 50-yard line at the Georgia Dome are just two) and his, well, sexual fantasies (we’re talking costumes, horses, vampires and school girl costumes), he makes one thing abundantly clear: Ludacris is up for just about anything.

By the time his second album, Word of Mouf, was released in 2001, Ludacris had apparently had his fill of sexual promiscuity and female fantasies. His club hit “Move Bitch” includes lyrics like “If your friends jump in, ‘Ohh gurl,’ they’ll be mo’ dead.” Even Luda needs his space.

With Kanye West working as producer, Ludacris created his next hit, one of his most mainstream to date, “Stand Up” on his 2003 album Chicken-N-Beer. In addition to the badassery of his subtle, but delicious, album title, check out the video at the 0:50 timestamp for the eloquence of “Watch out for the medallion my diamonds are wreckless / Feels like a midget is hanging from my necklace.” Spray painted midgets? We’re listening.

His fourth album The Red Light District, released in 2004, included the slightly more aggressive “Get Back.” Portrayed in the video as having biceps that even Hulk Hogan would envy, the song was supposedly the result of Ludacris’s annoyance with the paparazzi, acting as a warning to those who may harass and stalk that: “I came, I saw, I hit him right there in the jaw.”

But Ludacris is also an accomplished actor, philanthropist and entrepreneur, among other things. He was part of the “Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture” for his work in Crash, which won at the Screen Actors Guild. The Ludacris Foundation also works with a number of organizations, including Chicago-based National Runaway Switchboard, for issues such as safe sex and HIV/AIDS awareness as well as encouraging younger people to work in the creative arts.

He is also the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace along with his manager Chaka Zulu. As an artist, Ludacris has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards, winning three including “Best Rap Album” for his 2007 album Release Therapy. And according to the the Recording Industry Association of America, Ludacris is currently the highest-selling Southern hip hop solo artist of all time. Clearly, we’re all in for a treat.

Photo courtesy of Abbot Genser / Miramax Films.

Fact: I have never worked at an amusement park. I could never deal with the reality of the repetition of “Rock Me Amadeus,” spoiled corn dogs and adolescents who can’t hold their vomit. But despite this, the staff of aged rock stars, overenthusiastic supervisors and jaded townies at Adventureland manages to make working for minimum wage at a substandard amusement park an appealing alternative to yet another summer internship. Writer and director Greg Mottola’s Adventureland chronicles the summer of 1987 and all the sex, mini joints and drunk driving that go along with a seemingly dead-end future. Ah, to live in the ’80s.

After his post-college, pre-graduate school European vacation is cut short because of financial shortcomings, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) finds himself back at home with his parents without a job, without a girlfriend and without any prospects on either front. From the start, it’s difficult to ignore the parallels between Brennan’s post-graduation employment struggles and the currently dismal job market. Luckily, Brennan presents a job opportunity any college graduate should be able to secure when he joins the staff of Adventureland in a last-ditch attempt to finance his graduate studies at Columbia University in the fall. Drawing on his own experiences, Mottola effectively kills the illusion of glitz and the joy of a day at an amusement park as Brennan and his co-workers expose the truth behind manipulated carnival games and corn dogs sold despite sitting in the sun for a day.

Fresh off his success with Superbad, Mottola sets the ’80s as the backdrop of his story, hinting at the decade that brought us hair metal and Say Anything… without presenting it as the focus of the film. Eric Clapton posters hang in Brennan’s room; Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart) plays an 8-track in her beat up car; Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds) boasts of his jam session with Lou Reed to any underage girl that will listen. The nostalgia works everywhere it is offered and serves as a reason for a badass ’80s soundtrack. The references set up a distinct generation often thought of as slackers, but Mottola refuses to make the decade’s characteristics the spotlight of the story.

Rather, the concentration of the film, the heart and the reason why Adventureland manages to escape the constraints of other coming-of-age stories is the honesty and authenticity of the characters. Eisenberg’s James Brennan is soft-spoken and slightly awkward; a virgin whose genuine shyness and stuttering speech strikes a chord of sincerity. Each of Mottola’s characters is utterly real: from the way they speak to the manner in which the employees handle their friendships and relationships, nothing seems outwardly dramatic or superficial. Brennan’s roots in academia have him quoting Shakespeare in seedy bars and his candor leads him to admit to possibly cheating before he’s even caught. His love interest and fellow Adventureland employee, Em, has a magnetism about her that endures throughout. It is the humility with which each character approaches everyday life and hardships that make them relatable and pleasing to watch.

Jason Alexander. Photo by Rachel Koh/North by Northwestern.

I was raised on Seinfeld. While other kids grew up watching Nickelodeon back in its prime with programming featuring Doug and Rocko’s Modern Life, my parents had my brothers and I hooked on the show about nothing. As Jason Alexander spoke to a packed house at Ryan Auditorium Thursday night, I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only addict. In a Q&A session sponsored by the Fiedler Hillel Center, Alexander, best known for his role as the neurotic, often self-loathing George Costanza on Seinfeld, reflected on a career spanning film, television, Broadway and even a brief McDonald’s commercial.

The informal chat, mediated by sophomore Aaron Eisenberg, began with the actor’s reflection on growing up in a Jewish household and quickly moved to discussing his career both on- and off-Broadway as a theater actor. With an air of humility and subtle humor, Alexander kept the audience amused as he explained how he fell into acting.

Alexander hit his stride discussing, arguably, his greatest creation in George Costanza. Moving through the story of the creation of Seinfeld, from its slow start to its now worldwide recognition, he shared stories of the creators and cast that he worked with over nine seasons. In explaining Seinfeld co-creator Larry David’s influence on the George Costanza character, Alexander launched into a George-like fit as he did his best Larry David impression, a moment the crowd completely devoured, erupting in applause and laughter. “George has a strange sensibility about the world,” Alexander said about the character’s outlook. He went further to say that nearly every moment on the show was inspired by something that really happened; yes, even the infamous Contest and the accidental limo ride to the neo-Nazi rally.

Alexander also confirmed rumors that the whole cast would be reuniting for a story arc on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, saying that the premise for the story is that the four actors are gathering for a Seinfeld reunion episode. While Alexander couldn’t pick just one favorite episode, joking that “It’s like asking a father who’s your favorite child? Which in my case would be my older one,” it seems pretty clear that Georgie Boy Costanza garnered a pretty solid standing in our list of favorites.

–

North by Northwestern had an opportunity to sit down with Alexander shortly after the show. Excerpts:

The first film I saw you in was actually Pretty Woman, where you played the misogynistic lawyer, and then later in Shallow Hal you played this kind of womanizer character. Do you like the challenge of playing a character that audiences may not like?

It’s definitely fun. I’m sure I’m not the only actor who will say it, but when you’re playing villains you don’t approach it like you’re playing a villain. You’re always thinking, like, well he’s right. If you don’t do that, if you go into it thinking I’m the villain then you’re kind of back in the silent films with the cape and the handlebar mustache. I’m not usually thinking will the audience like them, I’m trying to think will the audience understand them at all, is there a point of view to convey. In the scene in [Pretty Woman] where my character actually attacks Julia [Roberts], we did a version where she beats me up. So I didn’t know what version was going to be in the film until I saw it so there was never any worrying [that I was] going to come off as a jerk. With Shallow Hal, I just thought he was such a laughable character that you couldn’t take anything that he was espousing seriously.

Especially when the audience learned that he had a tail.

The moment for me is when we did the scene where he apparently had been dating this gorgeous woman who shows up in the park and he blows her off because her middle toe is bigger than her other toe and that to him is a sign of inferiority. I just went, wow.

You are obviously best known for playing George Costanza on Seinfeld. When people approach you on the street, do you hear George or Jason?

George.

Always George?

Not always, largely. If I’m walking somewhere and someone just yells “George” trying to get me to notice them, they’ll never get it because early on, when Seinfeld was starting to become a thing and people were making a fuss, I was walking somewhere and somebody yelled out “George!” I turn around all puffed up and they were calling a guy named George; it was not me. It was a very embarrassing incident, so I just went, you know, there are people named George in the world and it may not always be about me.

One of the prize jewels of the series is “The Marine Biologist” and fans know that George is notorious for spinning these lies to women. Was there ever an alter ego or career you lied about to get a woman interested?

Me? Oh, darling, you give me far too much credit. I met my wife right out of college so I never had a dating life. My dating life was in college. I was probably the last graduating class to be pre-AIDS and everybody was having sex with everybody. By the time I met my wife the only thing I hadn’t tried was monogamy so I thought, “Well, that could be interesting.” I literally met her six weeks after I left school and we moved in with each other three weeks after I met her and that’s been my life ever since. I lie to her all the time, but no, I’ve never had to lie.

I read that Ricky Gervais once said that George Costanza was the greatest sitcom character of all time.

Aw, isn’t that sweet?

What is one episode or one plotline that completely confirms that statement?

One of my favorite things that I ever got to do as George [was when] George was working at Pendant Publishing at the time and he was having sex with the cleaning woman. It’s that scene where he’s called into the boss’s office and confronted with it. It’s basically thrown right in his face. As you’re a writer you would [think] there are a million responses here. George takes that long moment to think about it and just says, “Is that wrong? Should I not have done that?” That was brilliant because it lets you see him go through the entire rolodex of, “Well, I could say this, I could say this, I could try this.” And it was just, to me, just a delicious moment. I don’t think I ever would have tried that [tactic].

Do you have any advice you would give to a college student getting into comedy?

I was never trying to get into comedy, per se. Everybody that I know in comedy says just get up. The trick in comedy is finding what you have to say and how you say it that makes you different from what everybody else is talking about and how they’re saying it. [Jerry] Seinfeld himself has a work ethic that’s extraordinary. He writes every day. He makes himself write something every day and I think that’s probably the key to being a wonderful comic, not necessarily a comic actor, but certainly a comic.

What show is your Seinfeld, a show that you constantly find yourself quoting or relating to your life?

I think most of life gets handled by Family Guy these days. If either a Stewie, a Quagmire, a Brian or a Peter line doesn’t cover the situation, then there’s probably nothing left to say.

Ah, art. Photo courtesy of Katharine Giertych.

Rocking a shirt plainly stating “Person,” Martin needed no opener for his Feb. 26 performance at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Performing before a rain-soaked, sold-out crowd, the comedian served as his own warm-up act, delivering seemingly off-the-cuff jokes that allowed those with wet socks and wet jeans to promptly refocus their attention.

Best known for his deadpan one-liners, piano-harmonica medleys and ambidextrous abilities, Martin stuck to his brand of comedy — which luckily included a lot of new material. After entertaining his confusion for Northwestern’s constant midterms and the beehive vibe of the Pick-Staiger stage, Martin segued into rapid-fire jokes that jumped from sticking a wet sheep in the dryer to literal battles between professional sport team mascots. His consistent pace, comedic timing and vault of new jokes kept the packed house laughing with few pauses for breath.

After promising to return, Martin went backstage to retrieve his stand-up staple and fan favorite, The Large Pad. While Martin’s comedy has been compared to late comedian Mitch Hedberg’s approach, consistencies like the Pad have become analogous with Martin’s newfound voice and style, something audiences now expect and adore, as evidenced by the overwhelming applause at the mere sight of the Pad. Its pages included Martin’s signature graphs; one charted the enjoyment of watching karaoke based on how bad the person singing is, and another listed the “other” policies after “the best” policy of honesty.

In another signature act, Martin played piano and later the guitar and harmonica while spitting out jokes in quick succession. His list of “Cool Ways to Propose” was especially well-received, including gems such as breaking your lady’s finger and conspiring with a doctor so that when she gets her cast off, she finds both the ring and that fact that she’s been engaged for three weeks. It was this nonsensical reasoning that had the audience roaring.

It wasn’t long before the women of Northwestern also audibly voiced their “appreciation” for Mr. Martin’s charming sense of humor and floppy hair. After asking the audience for questions, one girl yelled “What’s your number?” to which he replied “Five.”

Nearing the end of the show, Martin asked if everyone would enjoy hearing some of his older material, to which the crowd responded by yelling out their favorite jokes. Like an old touring band paying tribute to their greatest hits, he launched into a series of jokes from televised specials and shows, commenting on the naming of the orange, the effect of adding “ladies” to the end of a sentence, and swimming as a sport versus swimming as a means of survival. His ADD-brand of comedy ended the show on a high note.

An hour and a half after opening the show, it’s safe to say that with his mix of absurdity and shy giggling, Demetri definitely delivered. And all without ever being a dick.

No notice in the paper, no “Alba shopping for wedding dresses!” rumors. Nada. Zilch. The bride didn’t even wear a wedding dress. She wore a blue dress, no one was in attendance, and I am in shock. Touché, Alba, touché.

Last time I checked, that doctor from The Exorcism of Emily Rose who claims to be a psychology professor at Northwestern is not on the faculty list. I also know that if Buffy the Vampire Slayer had come to Northwestern instead of the invented University of California–Sunnydale, my irrational fear of vampires sneaking into Bobb in the middle of the night would finally be at ease. And I’m just waiting for Aaron Samuels from Mean Girls to show up in my American cultural history lecture.

Whether you happen on a rerun of Still Standing or catch one of the many utterances in Mean Girls, Northwestern’s name, logo, pennant and sweatshirts seem to pop up in the most unexpected places. Sweet, right? Who doesn’t like sitting with a best friend from the University of (insert home state) and innocently boasting, “Oh yeah, weird. I go there. Hm, just wondering, what was the last movie that referenced your school?” Sure, it was one line but, hey, it’s something.

These references may seem random, but Northwestern actually has some control over and reasoning behind whether or not John Krasinski gets to wear a shirt with our logo in License to Wed. The man in charge is Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations. “In order to use Northwestern’s name in any film or television show, a script is sent to me. It must then be approved and given my permission,” Cubbage said.

Cubbage and his staff review about five or six films a year, with requests ranging from having a Northwestern diploma on the wall to actually shooting scenes on campus. The office favors one factor over all others when reviewing a script: a flattering reference. “When [the film Proof] sent the script and asked if a Northwestern sweatshirt could be sent so Gwyneth Paltrow could wear it in this film based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, I said, ‘Great. Can I deliver it personally?’” Cubbage sent the sweatshirt to England where the production was filming, but unfortunately, the scene was cut.

The best reference I have seen was in that poorly written, joke of a spin-off, Joey. If you’re looking for an obvious plug for the Northwestern film department, here it is: Joey pretends to be a graduate of our fair university to get a job, after attending an alumni party and hearing about the famed “Northwestern Mafia.”

On a more prestigious note, 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada was nominated for two Oscars, and for Cubbage, Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, was an ideal character to wear the Northwestern sweatshirt. “The character in that film was great,” Cubbage said. “The purpose of the movie was to show that she was a hard-working, intelligent girl who proved her worth, as opposed to the other flighty assistants.”

Of course, Hollywood is full of badasses, and not every film and television show gains official permission from Cubbage. When a film bypasses Cubbage’s office and uses Northwestern’s likeness without permission, Cubbage says there is little they can do. Heard of this year’s College Road Trip? The film’s plot revolves around a character played by Raven-Symoné (That’s So Raven) not wanting to go to Northwestern, but they never had permission to use our name. “Someone e-mailed me the trailer asking what I thought about it. And I replied, ‘Not a thing,’ because I had no idea the [Northwestern] name was used.”

And though there is no guarantee that a quick reference to Northwestern actually makes anyone jump on U.S. News and World Report to look us up, whose interest wouldn’t be a little peaked after seeing John Krasinski don the Northwestern shirt in License to Wed?